Utilizing the visit of Prime Minister Winston Churchill to the United States, the American Emergency Committee for Zionist Affairs today sent him an appeal, in behalf of all Zionist groups in the United States, asking him for a statement containing a promise that the British Government “will re-examine its present policy in Palestine so that the victory of the United Nations will insure also the re-establishment of the Jews as a nation in their ancient homeland.”
The appeal, which was signed by Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, chairman of the Emergency Committee, was made jointly by the Zionist Organization of America, the Hadassah, the Mizrachi organization of America and the Zionist Laborite groups. It read:
“We address ourselves to you, Mr. Prime Minister, at a time when the sacrifices and the efforts of the United Nations have at last brought nearer the prospect of victory over the forces of a ruthless and terrible barbarian, and when on the other hand the agony of the Jewish people of Europe approaches a tragic climax unexampled in Jewish history. To the Jews of Europe, tortured and facing yet unimagined horrors, Palestine still offers the one hope of immediate rescue and of ultimate survival as a people.
“We appeal to you in behalf of those no longer in a position to appeal for themselves for that word of reassurance which will make that hope a reality. We cannot accept and do not believe that a policy conceived in wholly different circumstances as part of a program of appeasement, now discredited and discarded, can prevail in the face of the compelling necessities of the unprecedented situation which now confronts the Jewish people. We cannot accept and do not believe that Britain’s great Prime Minister who has led his own people through the valley of the shadow, and who has in the past so valiantly and truly expressed the conscience of Britain in insisting on the full discharge of its solemn obligation to the Jewish people, will fail in this grave hour to utter the word which will restore hope to millions now in despair.
“We ask you, Mr. Prime Minister, to say that Great Britain, true to its obligations, will be true to its promise to the Jewish people and in the light of that promise will reexamine its present policy in Palestine, so that the victory of the United Nations will insure also the reestablishment of the Jews as a nation in their ancient homeland.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
